The XX Brain Quotes

“Given everything we’ve discovered about the relationship between hormones, menopause, and brain health, a larger question remains: Can the use of birth control affect the health of the brain? Oddly enough, even though more than 100 million women take the pill worldwide, there have been only a handful of studies dedicated to its effects on the brain.”
― Lisa Mosconi, The XX Brain: The Groundbreaking Science Empowering Women to Prevent Dementia

“Moms do not sleep. Moms hover in a state of semi-consciousness, waiting for someone to need something.”
― Lisa Mosconi, The XX Brain

“Ein tibetisches Sprichwort besagt: "Iss halb so viel, laufe doppelt so viel, lache dreimal so viel und liebe unbegrenzt.”
― Lisa Mosconi, The XX Brain

“Seriously, if men had hot flashes, we’d have found a solution a long time ago!”
― Lisa Mosconi, The XX Brain

“Lower education and lack of occupational attainment are other lifestyle factors known to increase Alzheimer’s risk in both women and men. However, historically, women have had fewer opportunities for higher education and occupation, which may very well have contributed to the higher Alzheimer’s prevalence in women we are seeing today.”
― Lisa Mosconi, The XX Brain

“In the first year after a heart attack, women are over 50 percent more likely to die than men are. Within the following five years, 47 percent of the women will die, develop heart failure, or suffer from a stroke, compared with 36 percent of the men. Why is that? One theory is that before menopause, estrogen keeps the harmful LDL cholesterol low while improving the good HDL cholesterol, therefore protecting women’s arteries from the buildup of plaque that contributes to heart attack and stroke. The menopausal drop in estrogen levels and the increase in LDL cholesterol are among the key players in a woman’s increased risk of heart disease, although more research is needed to explore the mechanisms involved.”
― Lisa Mosconi, The XX Brain

“There is an unfortunate flaw in Western medicine’s approach to health, in that it’s based on the premise that there is nothing one can do to prevent a disease from settling in. Consequently, as a society, we typically wait until we’re already burdened by an issue, then look to surgery or the latest and greatest pharmaceuticals to rid ourselves of whatever health problems we’re experiencing. This approach works well as long as we are trying to fix a broken bone or fight a sudden bacterial infection. However, it isn’t efficient for many other things, and it certainly doesn’t work with our brains.”
― Lisa Mosconi, The XX Brain

“There is an unfortunate flaw in Western medicine’s approach to health, in that it’s based on the premise that there is nothing one can do to prevent a disease from settling in. Consequently, as a society, we typically wait until we’re already burdened by an issue, then look to surgery or the latest and greatest pharmaceuticals to rid ourselves of whatever health problems we’re experiencing.”
― Lisa Mosconi, The XX Brain

“we all once believed that conditions like depression, stroke, and even cancer were essentially unavoidable genetic outcomes. Instead, they have all turned out to result in great part from the interactions of genetic susceptibility and a large number of medical and environmental factors. Medical conditions known to affect brain health, such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, are also much more likely to arise from lifestyle factors than from genetic mutations.”
― Lisa Mosconi, The XX Brain

“When the drug was evaluated for side effects, the studies were conducted on twenty-three men and only two women!”
― Lisa Mosconi, The XX Brain